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Rocks
Psiloritis looks like a mountain with limestone rocks. However, this appearance fools the non expert since the variety of the rocks that are hidden in the coombs can very easily characterize the area as the ark of rocks in Crete. There are only a few rocks that are not present in the mountain. Like a backbone across the island there are the hard, positioned in platters limestones, the remains of the bottom of an ancient ocean. These rocks that we come across at Psiloritis are actually dark marbles that are picked out from thin, white or tile-red strips of a harder silicic material from which hones were made in the past. Today, following the tradition of centuries, the shepherds of Psiloritis build their shelters (mitato) with limestones in the form of a platter. Most of these rocks, with all their alterations due to time, can be observed by crossing Kouloukonas Mountain starting from the north to the south on foot or by car. It is a half hour drive, a trip of 250 millions of years in the past... The pressures that picked up the rocks and created the mountain are captured like pleats or creases that crinkle the layers. They seem impressive during the ride towards the Monastery of Vosakos or the plateau of Nida. Around the central mountain chain a variety of other groups of rocks cover the limestone platters. Many of the lower mountainous areas are consisted of limestones and dolomites of the Tripoli zone. At the north coast and in some valleys of the upcountry, schists, rocks, foliars and flyschs create beautiful coombs, valleys and plateaus with rich flat waters and vegetation. The most peculiar rocks of the area are surely these that one comes across in the basin of north Mylopotamos, from the area of Gonies at Malevizi to Aksos, but also at the south of Psiloritis at Lochria and Kamares. Tile-red, green or purple rough rocks pop out of the edges of the roads. They are the lavas that several millions of years ago were erupting from the underwater volcanoes, forming what we call today the ophiolites. At the lowland and fertile zone the newer rocks, mainly yellowish limestones, marls and argils that were formed when millions of years ago sea covered parts of Crete, prevail. White and shiny layers of plaster pop out of the area of Messara, Agia Varvara, Apomarma and Zaros. In these places there is a hidden treasure of fossils that includes echinuses, fish, shells, limpets, shark’s teeth, sirenias or sea goats.
